The Galaxy Alpha, on paper at least, is a dream phone for scores of Samsung users. You get the look of a Galaxy device without necessarily getting the feel of one. The phone is made of metal and premium materials, making up for the cheap build-quality that plagues even Samsung's high-end devices. Americans turned on by such an idea can now pick a Galaxy Alpha up come September 26th, when the phone will go on sale exclusively from AT&T online and in stores.

Unsurprisingly, the Alpha's perks come at a price. The phone will cost $612.99 altogether or $199.99 with a two-year contract. Next18 customers can opt to pay $25.55 a month, whereas Next12 folks can get by with hanging over $30.65 instead.

The Alpha matches your bling. That's why it costs so much.

Specs-wise, that money will get you a 4.7-inch 1280 by 720 AMOLED display, a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, a 12MP camera, and 32GB of internal storage (with no microSD card slot). There's a fingerprint sensor in the home button and a heart rate sensor next to the rear shooter. Power comes from a tiny 1,860mAh battery, which is smaller than even that of the Galaxy SIII. The Alpha may look premium, but it definitely comes with its share of drawbacks.

DALLAS, Sept. 22, 2014 – AT&T1 and Samsung today announced that the Samsung Galaxy Alpha™ will be available starting Sept. 26 exclusively online at www.att.com, AT&T’s fastest way to order, and in AT&T retail stores.

“We are excited to offer you yet another industry leading smartphone with the announcement of the Galaxy Alpha on the nation’s most reliable 4G LTE network,2 covering more than 300 million Americans,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president – Devices, AT&T. “The Samsung Galaxy Alpha marries sleek, premium design with all of the great features and Samsung technology that you have come to expect from a Galaxy product.”

The Galaxy Alpha’s beautiful metal frame and slim build, with a 4.7-inch screen, offers you a powerful and stylish smartphone. It features a 2.5GHz Quad Core processor and up to 32GB of storage for all of your applications, pictures and videos. Additional features include:

Stunning Images: Equipped with a 12MP rear-facing camera and a 2.1MP front-facing camera, the Galaxy Alpha uses real-time HDR to capture stunning images. The device also offers you advanced options, such as Selective Focus, Panorama and Shot & More.

Ultra Power Saving Mode: Never worry about running out of power while on-the-go. Ultra Power Saving Mode will turn your screen to black and white, and shut off non-essential apps, so you get the most out of the battery you have left. With Ultra Power Saving Mode a 10 percent charge will allow you to still receive calls and texts for up to 24 hours.3

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha earned five out of five stars on AT&T’s Eco-Rating system. The system, which rates the environmental factors of AT&T branded handset devices, was created to empower consumer choice around sustainability. For more information about this device’s rating, AT&T’s Eco-Rating System, and how you can join AT&T in making a difference, please visit http://att.com/ecospace.

Comments

I'm just going to say it. The Galaxy Alpha is, in my opinion, Samsung's latest entry in the "tallest midget" pageant, and not worth $199.99 on a 2 year contract, especially when you can get a Galaxy S5 for the same price. Metal does not justify that price tag. This is a solidly mid-range phone, and should have a mid-range price to go with it.

Eli Friedman

Tallest Midget pageant may be the funniest thing i've read in a while.

Andrew Richards

My thoughts exactly -- this is a $350 phone, even with the aluminum detailing.

I don't know that it's a $350 phone, but it's definitely not a $613 phone. I'd think this should be somewhere in the $449 range.

dude

$350 can get you an OPO or a Nexus 5. This one is $450 because you pay for the extra Touchwiz.

I would get an original Moto X over this, although the camera is a little worse. Or even a Z3 Compact.

dude

Well I meant it's $600, but assuming it's $450, there are still other options.

Andrew

Not sure why everybody is calling it mid-range. The specs inside put it comparable to a G3 or an S5. It is a high-end phone in a 4.7" package... and I'm looking forward to it as a replacement to my Moto X (the original).

jonathan3579

You're drunk.

Lisandro O Oocks

don't even dare compare it to the G3. G3 has almost 2x as many pixels per inch. almost 2x battery capacity. almost a whole inch more on display. IR blaster, Wireless charging.
It even has faux metal. i'll rather have faux metal, than having faux specs.

james fuston

1440p is almost 4x the resolution of 720p, so going down sounds like a really good way to save battery to me. Of course, Samsung completely ruined what could've been of that battery because Samsung.

Lisandro O Oocks

yeah. yet you will still need to charge the Alpha every day 2x when the G3 you won't, unless you toyed with it non-stop.

james fuston

I had an AT&T G3 and it was reliably at 35% battery by 5pm. I don't think kindly of that phone.

Andrew

Obviously due to the size drop you expect a drop in resolution. The battery capacity scales down too.. I would expect to get equivalent battery life out of this as well. Yes you lose IR blaster (something I never use) and Wireless Charging (my G3 revision actually doesn't have this where I am)... but again I feel these are expected tradeoffs for something that fits into the smaller form factor.

Lisandro O Oocks

All I'm saying is that 1860 mAh won't last all day.
2100 mAh barely comes close on my non-LTE, not-bloated Nexus 4.
I get that this phone is not for me, but I'd like to imagine that other customers may do more with their smartphones than just waiting for a phone call and hope is not a sales guy.

Andrew

If my Moto X at 2200 mAh can easily last 2 days.. then I would expect this would have no problem lasting 1 day. I suppose that won't hold true if you've got the screen on for more than 3 hours in the day... but the way I use it (push email all day, calendar reminders, Hangouts, 2-3 hours of Bluetooth APTx audio), I would be surprised if it died within the day.

Lisandro O Oocks

Clearly you haven't had a Samsung lately.

Casin

Well it has nearly the same ppi as the iPhone 6, and it uses the latest CPU, so I don't see how it's midrange.

J_Pod

At&t exclusive? DOA

jonathan3579

Not that I'm interested in this phone but exclusive? Fuck off.

Michael

$600+ is way too much for a mid range phone.

blairh

Everything I wished the iPhone 6 would have been. 4.7" screen. 115 grams.

I wouldn't pay $600 for this, but on-contract I could justify. I'm very interested.

Devansu Devavrat

Not gonna lie but i kind of liked this phone's design after s2 but $600 off contract,
Fuck u Samsung.

Chapa

The S2 costed (me) the same off contract back in the day.

Tony Byatt

$99 on contract and non-exclusive would have been a pretty interesting...

Then it's going to have the same creaking problem all other samsung phones have. I really wish they would just close the phone up. Battery life is good enough now.

ProductFRED

My Note 3 doesn't creak. After a year, though, the battery would last an hour to an hour and a half less (in terms of screen on time). I bought a replacement Anker battery off Amazon for $15, the same 3200 mAh as the stock battery. Now it performs like new. If you don't like being able to swap out your battery, go buy an HTC or Sony device. Samsung should keep doing what they've always been doing.

Aooga

Really? My S5 creaks horribly every time I use it. Good to know, thanks.

Konstigt2

Exclusively to AT&T, not true. It is already possible to buy on all carriers or sim-free. In Sweden.

Guest

Exclusive to AT&T in the US.

Konstigt2

The title failed to mention that.

zyk

I wanted to call out its crappy specs, especially that screen. But then I remember the iPhone 6 has the exact same specs, even 1G of ram.. Sigh

blindexecutioner

To be fair iOS is probably way more optimized than Android will ever be so it doesn't need the same specs to run as good or better. The iPhone 6 screen is much better than this as well.

ProductFRED

Aside from the OS and lack of expandable storage/removable battery, the iPhone is better than most Android devices. But it's an apples to oranges comparison because the iPhone is essentially a single hardware platform (think Mac) vs Android, whose goal is universal compatibility.

zyk

The only reason you felt that iOS is "performing better" than Android is because it gives priority to user inputs and freezes any background process to make the animation FLOW better. But that doesn't mean it can PERFORM well on 1G of ram. Try open up 4+ tabs on safari, the 4th one will guarantee to refresh annoyingly. Open up 10+ tabs and safari crashes 70% of the time. It also causes A LOT of other apps to crash from time to time. My note 3 stutters from time to time (only) when it's updating apps / scanning (memory intensive), but I will take that over crashes any day.

I meant the iPhone6 has the same specs and(even worse) comes with only 1G of ram. 801+720P screen+sub-2000 mAh battery is still crap to me when I can get a note 3 with the same price. Anyhow you should take a chill pill and enjoy life a bit more.

Chapa

Let's take this outside then11111!!!!!

/jk

J.J.

720p, no sd, small battery, but same price as a s5. yikes!!...no thx

WHO?

I think this is to test the market for a phone to be comparable to the iPhone 6. Something with premium build quality and same price tags as a iPhone. AT&T has the largest number of iPhone users and I'm sure the quickest to get certified for sell. THis will be perfect for those who want a 4.7 inch screen but not a iPhone. I would never buy it as I belong to the Note family for life. Good thing is if it fails like the Amazon Fire... It will be free on contract by December if you have an overpriced AT&T service. :)

Michelle Obama has a wang

How come phones are more expensive than tablets? Tablets have larger screens. For the most part I imagine most parts are fairly identical. The phone has a radio while most tablets do not. Though I doubt that adds $200-400 to the cost of the phone.

I remember seeing BOM's before and the cost wasn't much between making a phone and a tablet.

blindexecutioner

More exclusive AT&T garbage. I have no idea how this can benefit Samsung.

Lisandro O Oocks

they have to copy that from Apple too. One must never stop until you become one and the same.

Jamal Adam

Talk about way overpriced for a mid--range smartphone. This is a no-no

Chapa

It has the same specs as the S5... Only camera has less mpx.
Where's the midrange?

the S5 comes with has 940 mAh and .8 GHz more under the hood.
Also 1080p.
My guess is that resolution counters the smaller processor. But at 1860 mAh, i'm betting that the Alpha won't last you all day.

Chapa

Did you check the link?
It says how much each device gives you in batt time, benchmarked.
52h vs. 72h (1h of web/video/3G talk per day)
If you like the size, you compromise batt and screen... is like no brains logic. But at the same time, the screen is 312dpi (which is awesome) and the batt benchmark is better than the new iPhone.
I say it's an Android alternative to iPhone (since it's even thinner and shorter, but with same screen size)

Lisandro O Oocks

if you say so. all i know is that even my Nexus 4 has more juice in the battery and it doesn't even do LTE.
My guess is that'll only do 12 hours of average use when my N4 does 14 and the GS5 would do about 17-18.

Chapa

I had terrible battery with my N4. N5 is better, but barely. Android L makes a bit of a difference, even under SystemUI memory leaks it seems to pull more juice out of it.
I see your point tho.
While I like the form-factor, it wouldn't hurt a bit more battery.
On their defense: SnapDragon 801 is far more energy efficient than Nexus 4's cpu.

Classic example of why some phones don't do well, keeping them exclusive to one carrier. Even though I don't know if I would buy this, still having the option would be nice Samsung.

Okay

Most everyone I know has their phone in some kind of case or skin, so what's the point? Get the S5, save the coin and get a Lifeproof or Otterbox or whatever.

Forget_you

When I am done with my note 3 I don't think I will get another samsung phone. That z3 coming out looks really nice! I thought phone manufacturers were starting to realize exclusives are bs that hurt you in the long run

Illuminati

I'd say it's a nice phone but for something in that price range I'd get a note 4 which also has metal. Maybe thats why Apple adds 400 dollars to a moto g in a new housing along with removing the micro sd card slot.